An Adaptive Quantization Based PVC Scheme for HEVC

Abstract

In order to achieve highly compact representation for videos, we propose an adaptive quantization based perceptual video coding (PVC) scheme in this paper. Because human only perceive the limited discrete-scale quality levels, the perceptual quantization is transformed into the problem of how to determine the maximum quantization parameter (Qp) under the same perceptual quality level. So, the relationship between perceptual quality level and quantization parameter is analyzed with the statistical way in this paper. The frame-level Qp value for each quality level is determined based on the maximum probability criterion. Then, the just noticeable distortion is estimated to guide the Qp adjustment in the coding unit level (CU-level). In summary, the perceptual quantization is achieved in both the frame level and the CU level according to characteristics of human visual system (HVS). Experimental results show that the proposed PVC scheme achieves substantial bitrate reduction with better subjective and objective quality in comparison with other PVC schemes.